The dangers of unclean practices in restaurants and hospitals have been well known for many years. Bacteria and other microbial organisms which are the cause of many contagious diseases are capable of being transmitted from infected individuals to many other people if sanitary conditions are not maintained in such settings where the micro-organisms thrive and where people are susceptible to receiving into their bodies such microbial micro-organisms.
At the present time, many diseases, such as hepatitis, have been found to be transmittable due to a failure of people to wash their hands with soap and water after using a public toilet. In fact, some public health laws require those in the food distribution field to wash their hands each time they enter the toilet facilities before they resume their duties.
In the main, the requirement for employees to wash their hands is attempted by the posting of signs and/or intermittent checks by supervisory personnel.
Some efforts to produce systems for enforcing hygienic practices in such facilities as restaurants and hospitals have been proposed. However, known prior systems have relied on such tools as audible signals to workers who exit a toilet facility without having done such things as turn on a water faucet or operate a hand drying apparatus. Such systems do not assure that the worker has washed his or her hands with soap and water and can be easily circumvented.